


The Clock (Tower)

by ByTheDawn



Series: Stolen Moments [9]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 08:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ByTheDawn/pseuds/ByTheDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the <a href="http://swanqueenweek.tumblr.com/">Swan Queen Week Midwinter 2014</a>. Day seven: Movie Plot AU.</p><p>When Emma messes up and Henry finds out she is seeing his mom—who he believes is the Evil Queen—Emma is forced to try and salvage her relationship with Henry as well as Regina, because the Mayor is refusing to see her in light of her son's anger. Frustrated, Emma gets Henry to tell her Regina's favourite movie so she can act out the most romantic scene from it and win Regina back. Set early in season one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Clock (Tower)

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty much a crack fic, to which I feel entitled after eight straight days of writing Swan Queen fiction. It's been an awesome week, and this is a big 'thank you' to everyone who has left kudos, comments, and messages. You guys are all awesome! To all the lovely [Tumblr people](http://bythedawn.tumblr.com/) who gave me ideas for movies... thank you, but I ended up going another way. I really, really, really, did not want to push these characters in the roles of existing movie characters so I wrote my own interpretation of the prompt—as always.

“Henry! Over.”

“Henry, come in. I know you’re there kid, I can see your light is on… Over.”

Emma groaned as she let her forehead come down on the steering wheel of her beloved yellow bug. How could she have been so stupid? She should have known that if Regina visited her at work at a time after school ended, there was a good chance Henry would be with her. She should have checked and not just planted a kiss on the attractive brunette like a big fool. Sure, they were going to have to tell Henry about them eventually, but he was still in his ‘Evil Queen’-phase and she hated falling from his good graces.

It wasn’t like she had _planned_ on feeling so ridiculously attracted to Henry’s adoptive mother—seriously, she had tried to fight it for Henry’s sake; he was counting on her to unmask Regina’s evilness and prove that all of the citizens of Storybrooke were fairy tale characters. Truthfully, though, she didn’t believe that for a moment, and in the meantime there was Regina with her blazing eyes and icy posterior and Emma hadn’t been able to refuse. 

Well, refuse… Emma had worked hard to even get where they were now—some kind of messed up tug of war that was both erotic and infinitely infuriating. Regina had taken a while to even acknowledge her as a human being and not just the filth that had somehow miraculously birthed one of the best kids in the history of the planet. Sure, she hadn’t made it easy for Regina to like her, but making Regina mad was one of the easiest ways to get her attention. Cutting the limb of her beloved apple tree? Pure genius on Emma’s part if Emma did say so herself; she got to show off her guns, Regina got in her face, and gauntlets were thrown. She had basically assured that she was constantly on the brunette’s mind.

A few more of those incidents and then there had been the mine. Emma had gotten Henry back to her and she could see the moment Regina had realized Emma was a human being with feelings of her own and not just some evil out-of-towner who had come to take her son. Emma had pleaded with her to just give her a chance and when they had come across each other in the diner, Regina had let her buy her lunch. Things had just sort of… progressed from there—with stabbing arguments and sexy death glares, but still progressed. Regina had been slowly warming up to her advances, but there was always _something_ holding her back. Well, that something had been joined by another something; Henry who was not speaking to either of them right now… and Regina wasn’t talking to her either.

That was how Emma found herself sitting outside of the Mayor’s mansion on a Wednesday night trying to reach Henry on his walkie-talkie after trying to reach his mother on her cell. Her current defeated pose was due to the fact that neither had felt particularly inclined to answer their respective communication devices. Emma lifted her head so she could slam it down again, but got interrupted by the sound of static on the walkie.

“I thought you were on my side? Over.” 

Henry sounded pretty gutted, Emma realized, and felt a stab of guilt shoot through her chest. She reached for the device which she had carelessly flung onto the passenger seat along with her cell phone and pressed the transmit button.

“I _am_ on your side, Henry. It’s just… It’s all part of the plan. Over.” She answered. It was a bit of a lie, obviously, but it was the best she could come up with. She didn’t want him mad at her, and she didn’t want to give up Regina, so she was just going to have to work with what she had… and right now that was Henry’s imagination.

“You kissing the Evil Queen is part of Operation Cobra? Over.” He asked incredulously, and she couldn’t really blame him. It didn’t make a lot of sense to be romancing his mom when all he wanted to do was have her be revealed as evil.

“It’s a ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’-type of thing. I’m getting her to trust me and to like me. That way I can… you know, discover her secrets. Over.” Emma answered, and now she was really starting to feel guilty. This whole conversation was not only unfair to Henry, but Regina as well. If the brunette ever found out about this, she was in so much trouble.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped. Over.” Henry answered her, and she smiled when he appeared in the window, lifting his curtains. She got out so they could see each other as they talked.

“Because you needed to be surprised when we told you, or, you know, something like this happened. You have a big part to play now, Henry. I need you to convince your mom that you are actually okay with her and me getting close. She cares about you a lot and with you being mad at her—and me—she won’t talk to me. It jeopardizes the entire operation. Over.” Emma groaned inwardly. She had just officially volunteered herself for the ‘worst mother of the year’-award. Lying to her ten-year-old son so he would convince his mom to start talking to Emma again? Not a classy move, Swan. Not classy at all.

“…are you sure it’s all for the operation? Over.” Henry asked her, and she sighed when she brought the walkie-talkie to her mouth.

“Absolutely, kid. Now, what is your mom’s favourite movie? Over.”

“I don’t know… why? Over.”

“Because if it’s something romantic I can—you know—try to use it to get her to like me again. Over.”

“That sounds like a very bad plan. Over.” 

“Whatever, kid. So, tell me, what movie does she watch often? Over.”

“The one with the guy running after the bus, I guess. It’s black and white and he is a soldier. Over.”

“That sounds like basically any old film ever. Over.”

“Best I can do. Over.”

“Okay, thanks kid, I’ll figure it out. Now go to bed and be nice to your mom, okay? Over.” Emma smiled as Henry waved at her, and waved back. 

“Okay. Bye, Emma! Over.” He said much happier, and Emma felt her conscience ease in light of his acceptance. It was just a small, white, lie to get him to like her. Eventually he would get over this ‘Evil Queen’ stuff, and he would be fine with her and Regina being together—if she ever managed to make that a reality. Until that time, she was just going to have to go with Operation Cobra on this.

The curtains closed behind Henry, and she watched his light go out, leaving only a soft blue shine to the room. She smiled at the thought of him getting in bed in his cute PJ’s and hoped that one day Regina would allow her to be a bit more actively involved in his life. She really cared for the kid, after all. With a final glance to the other lit windows at the front of the house, Emma got back in her car. She had a movie to hunt for.

Google was a girl’s best friend as always, and before long, Emma was looking at a horribly cheesy clip of a very young Judy Garland and the dude who played Bruno Anthony on ‘Strangers on a Train’ from the 1945 classic ‘The Clock’. Emma had not been able to fight the eye-roll that had surged up in her at finding out Regina’s favourite movie was a romantic comedy from before colour recordings were even technologically possible. That woman was such an enormous snob sometimes.

Turning to Wikipedia, Emma read up on the plot, which was basically the mother of all romantic plots: soldier meets girl while on leave, convinces her to go out with him, and they fall epically in love. Judging by the synopsis, the two ended up married less than forty-eight hours after meeting each other. Well, Emma wasn’t quite ready for _that_ but she was sure there was some material to work with here. First things first, she needed to arrange Henry a playdate for tomorrow night…

When Regina still wasn’t picking up her phone the next day, nor answering any of Emma’s texts, she found herself in Gold’s shop, already annoyed with herself for having to go to him to fix her barely existing love life. The bell rang loudly above her head when she opened the door and the gallant but obviously homicidal middle-aged shopkeeper joined her soon in the dusty front room. He planted his cane in front of him smoothly and leaned down on it with two hands as he regarded her with a soft smile tugging gently at his lips.

“Miss Swan, what a pleasant surprise. How may I assist you on this fine day?” He asked perfectly pleasantly, and Emma tried to shake the unwanted sensation of her fight-or-flight reflexes prodding her.

“I need the key to the library. Official Sheriff business.” She bluffed, hoping to God Graham never found out about this. If he did, she was so screwed.

“I see… and you have some legal documentation to support this, I assume?” Gold prodded her gently.

“Sure, it’s at the station. I can get it for you but I only need the key until tomorrow. I figured you would be willing to accommodate the sheriff’s office.” Emma said casually, not flinching away from Gold’s inquisitive eyes.

“Well, if it matters so much to the sheriff’s office, then perhaps I can part with the key for a few short hours… provided, of course, that should the sheriff’s office ever take issue with me, this favour is not forgotten…?” Gold answered smoothly, and she nodded. Okay, perhaps getting indebted to Gold was not the smartest career move she had ever made, but she had an idea in her head now and it involved that damn clock tower. If only Regina’s favourite movie was something like ‘Say Anything’; even Emma could show up with a boombox and a mix-tape and stand in front of her car as the songs blasted.

Gold handed her the key with a final veiled reminder that she now owed him, and Emma once more fought the urge to roll her eyes. This was a common reaction doing anything involving Regina inspired in her, Emma was starting to find out. 

The day went by agonizingly slowly as she tried to find a way to put her grand plan into action. After careful consideration, trying to get Regina on a bus was probably not going to happen—mostly because she had yet to see a single bus in Storybrooke—so the only viable option was to do this with Regina in her car. Seeing it was a perfectly ordinary weekday, that also wasn’t the easiest task to accomplish and with her one-night-only deal with Gold, she didn’t have time for fancy planning. The only time she was sure Regina got in her car was around 3 PM to pick up Henry from school. 

Being deputy sheriff had its perks, chief amongst them the ability to ‘go on patrol’ and instead wait around City Hall for nearly forty minutes for her Judy Garland to appear.

“Regina!” Emma called, coming out of hiding. Regina spun around with the barest hint of surprise on her features before it was drowned out by anger.

“Deputy Swan. I thought I had made it very clear that we were to have no further interaction?” Regina started on her as soon as she got close enough for her not to have to raise her voice. Emma sighed.

“Well, _that’s_ not going to happen. For one, Henry is my kid too, and secondly, I work for you, so we will be talking eventually. I just… I want to say sorry about yesterday. I should have thought about Henry, thought about how he could be there. Is he… uh… is he still mad?” She asked, trying to step a bit closer, but Regina brushed past her on her way to her car, putting distance between them like a barrier.

“He was less angry this morning, I admit, but it still does not excuse your stupidity, Deputy Swan. My relationship with my son is already strenuous as it is—as you are very well aware—and I will not give him any further reasons to be upset with me. His delusions are quite enough. Now, if you will excuse me, I must pick up Henry.” Regina fished her car keys out of her bag and unlocked the expensive BMW.

“Regina, please, do you have plans tonight?” Emma tried again, hoping to steer the conversation in the needed direction. Regina regarded her a moment.

“I do, Miss Swan.” Regina answered and got in the car, but Emma had spotted the first chink in her armour; the brunette had switched to a slightly more personal term to call her. ‘Miss Swan’ was better than her job title. At this point in time, Emma figured she had Regina at least somewhat figured out; the brunette was not used to being pursued, to having her bluff called. Everyone in this town just gave in to her without even struggling, and here was Emma—who was particularly proud of her ability to call bluffs—refusing to back down. She figured Regina thought it was pretty stimulating and right now, Emma was willing to work with any advantage she could get. 

She stepped aside as Regina started the car, because she couldn’t quite put it past Regina to run over her toes, but took a deep breath when the car actually started to move. Okay, now or never. Swallowing her pride, Emma hoped to God that the cushy desk job that being a deputy sheriff was had not affected her endurance too badly as she pulled herself into a run, trying to catch up with the car. 

Emma would later be willing to admit that she only caught up because Regina slowed down, but catch up she did, and as Regina turned down the window of the passenger side door—leaning over so she could look at Emma—Emma tried to get enough air into her burning lungs to get her question out.

“Regina, would you break that date tonight?

“What?” Regina asked sharply, looking at her in disbelief as she mercilessly held the car at the same speed.

“Regina, would you break that date tonight?” Emma repeated, fighting the stitch in her side, and the burning in her lungs. 

“No, Miss Swan. I told you, we are not personally involved anymore.” Regina countered irritably, but Emma thought she could see the barest hint of a smile tugging at Regina’s soft lips.

“Oh, come on! I’m trying to be romantic here, and I’m making a fool of myself. We both know you are free tonight so give me another shot? Please? Before I drop dead?” Emma huffed out, abandoning the movie script in favour of surviving this encounter. Regina looked her up and down a few seconds, lips now crawling into a smirk that was just as dangerous as the death glare from before.

“Alright, yes. Where do you want to meet?” Regina asked, and Emma felt her jaw drop. Was Regina _trying_ to meet her movie script wishes or was this just coincidence? She licked her lips and took a gulp of breath as she fought the shooting pains in her legs.

“Under the clock at seven.” She breathed, and true to form, Regina asked the desired question, even though she had heard her perfectly fine.

“What?” 

“Under the clock… at seven.” Emma panted, and Regina chuckled. Deciding that was good enough of an answer, Emma slowly fell back, coming to a halt in the middle of the street, hands on her hips, panting as sweat made her shirt stick to her back. In the distance, Regina’s BMW turned the corner and Emma smiled. That could have gone better, but it also could have gone a lot worse.

Regina was late; Emma had sat on the steps of the library since six forty-five, basically praying no one would come up to her to ask what she was doing loitering about the steps of the abandoned building in a decent shirt and her newest pair of jeans. She had been very fortunate; even though it was a warm summer’s eve, not many people were about, and none had asked her why she had just spent every free minute after work cleaning the clock tower’s small landing and dragging a table and two chairs up there. It had been a hell of a job and she hadn’t had much time, but she had managed to clean, make the setting at least somewhat presentable, and change in her allotted time by making use of the sheriff’s station’s washroom and some of the furniture left behind in the library itself. It wasn’t perfect, but this whole thing had been rather short-notice. At 7.13 PM, though, Emma was quite sure Regina wasn’t going to show.

The sound of heels on pavement made her turn around, and she spotted Regina in one of the dark business suits that Emma adored, heading towards her. Emma smiled brightly as she walked out to meet her.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to come.” Emma admitted.

“I wasn’t either but Henry has been invited to a playdate and subsequent sleep-over and you did run along my car in plain view of at least a quarter of Storybrook’s citizens, so I felt it was only fair to allot my suddenly freed up time to you.” Regina answered her gruffly, but Emma still smirked. Regina had wanted to come, Emma decided. The brunette Mayor just wasn’t sure if she wanted Emma to know that she had wanted to come. Emma could deal with that.

“Well, thanks. I appreciate it. Now… if you would follow me…?” She asked cheekily, holding herself back from offering Regina her arm for appearances sake. Glancing about her, she quickly ushered Regina into the deserted building, and closed the door behind her, turning the key in the lock. She was not going to risk intruders. When she turned back to Regina, she was met with an arched eyebrow and an amused smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh at the village idiot. I’m making an effort here, you just haven’t seen it yet.” Emma chastised, taking the wind right out of Regina’s sails, and receiving her first genuine smile of the evening. Emma’s heart did a weird little flippy thing that was cause for concern—she was going to hold that thought until after dinner, though, because she had to make sure Regina did not run away from the cobweb infested dust treasury that the library had become, first.

“Okay, Madam Mayor, if you will follow me?” She asked chivalrously as she headed to the staircase, and Regina did, picking her way carefully in the expensive heels she wore. The last ladder was the most problematic, but with help, Regina made it up. Stepping aside, Emma let Regina take in her handiwork. She had laid out a very decent table—at least for her own standards—with a tablecloth, candles, and actual china and real silverware. Around the room, candles in various jars and other containers stood to give the space a romantic and homey feel. She had even provided napkins, and from a corner currently hidden from Regina, Emma fished out a small bouquets of flowers which she handed over a little shyly.

“Here, for you. For agreeing to see me tonight.” Emma said as Regina took in the space. Regina turned slowly, and Emma couldn’t help the smile that came to her features when she saw Regina appear genuinely touched by the display before her, although her sass was soon recovered.

“This is not exactly in the movie script, Miss Swan.” Regina jabbed at her as she took the flowers and brought them to her nose to smell. Emma shrugged.

“I only really watched the bus scene. I figured that if this went well, maybe we could watch the whole movie together some time; maybe act out some other bits? Wasn’t there a kiss somewhere…?” She threw back, and Regina arched an eyebrow at her—Emma could see the amusement luring blow the surface, however, and she stepped around Regina to pull out her seat. Regina regarded the rickety chair suspiciously.

“I tested it and cleaned it. It’s a perfectly decent chair, Regina. Come on, sit down. I’m hungry.” She coaxed with mock annoyance, and Regina sighed dramatically before sliding into the seat, letting Emma manoeuvre her forward. From one of the sills, Emma fetched a Tupperware container and two salad forks, and divided the richly filled—and homemade—salad over the two plates she had set out. From a bag, she produced a loaf of fresh bread, and placed it on the wooden board already set out, cutting a few slices.

“Since I figured you’d be late, I thought maybe salad? I just… threw in everything so if there is anything you don’t like, feel free to fish it out, okay?” Emma babbled as she offered the brunette a glass of red wine before pouring one for herself. Finally sitting down, she took in her dinner companion.

“So, what do you think? Movie-worthy?” Emma asked, not hiding her pleased smirk. Regina licked her lips and regarded the table and her companion.

“Well, you are no Robert Walker, but it will do, I suppose.” Regina answered her, and Emma smiled when Regina rewarded her with her second genuine smile. The whole situation was still a mess, but right now, Regina wasn’t fighting her, her budding relationship with Henry was back on track, and the journey towards the end credits looked promising enough. As she brought their glasses together with a toast to a pleasant night, Emma felt pretty positive about the things to come, and whatever happened, she would never look at the clock tower in quite the same way ever again.


End file.
